Stručnost | počinje s kvalifikacijama

Marija was born in Dubrovnik and graduated from the Faculty of Law in Zagreb. She was appointed as a judge in Zagreb in 1999, where she judged, among other things, pollution and environmental protection cases.

After a multi-year career as a judge, in 2009 she transferred to the Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency as the Fund’s Secretary, where she managed the organizational and personnel structure of the Fund and the development of projects in the field of environmental protection and energy, after which she opened his own Law Office, which mainly works on cases from environmental law. As part of the PHARE program, she was educated and obtained a mediator’s license.

In the period from 2005-2009. she was appointed Judge of Honor at the Court of Honor of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, and in the mandate from 2010 to 2015, she was appointed by fellow lawyers from the Croatian Bar Association as a disciplinary judge of the Croatian Bar Association.

She attended a number of specialist courses in the field of environmental protection, and in June 2013, under the mentorship of Mr. Al Gore and as part of “The Climate Reality Project”, she was educated and earned the title of Climate Leader – climate change expert.

Also, among the courses she attended is one on the implementation of the Aarhus Convention in Croatian legislation and judicial practice, i.e. the right of public access and participation in the field of environmental protection and European law and practice, co-financed by the European Union.

Since June 2010, she has been elected President of the Committee for Environmental Protection at the American Chamber of Commerce in Croatia (AmCham Croatia).

She is the co-founder and president of the International Institute for Climate Action (IICA), which was founded in 2012 (under the original name “Croatian Association for Carbon Footprint Reduction and Adaptation to Climate Change” (HU-CO2)). Marija is a member of several Commissions at the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development and participated as an expert in 4 working groups for climate change, during the Presidency of the Republic of Croatia in the Council of the EU (Area Outreach – Bilateral and Multilateral Negotiations on Climate Policies; Law – IG LEX; Climate Action and Rodne groups and climate change).

She is an official member of the delegation of the Republic of Croatia at the climate change negotiations in Paris in 2015 – COP21; Katowice (COP24), Madrid (COP25), Glasgow (COP26) and Sharm-el Sheikh (COP27), Dubai (UAE) (COP28).

She has published a number of articles in the field of environmental protection, participated in the drafting of the first Climate Law of the Republic of Croatia and regularly participates as a lecturer or panelist at conferences in the Republic of Croatia and abroad (on the topic of environmental law, environmental protection and climate change) where, among other things, she is a permanent lecturer at World Summit in China organized by BiT – China.

Marija was a member of the Board of Directors of several institutions: the American Chamber of Commerce in Croatia (AmCham), the International Chamber of Commerce in the Republic of Croatia (ICCC), the International Organization for Sustainable Economy (IASE) in London, and a member of the Task Force in charge of climate change and policy disputes (ADR) at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris (ICC).

As a leader in this field, she starts with the first education of the business and financial sector in the field of ESG in the Republic of Croatia through the (www.iica-esg.com) platform.

In the form of education, from 2015-2016, Marija attended the specialist study “Climate Change Law and Policy” at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (United Kingdom).

Also, in 2019, she specialized at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Zagreb, in the field of Foreign Policy and Diplomacy on the topic of CLIMATE DIPLOMACY.

In April 2020, the Croatian Diplomatic Club of the Republic of Croatia passed a Decision on her admission to regular membership as an associate member.

In June 2020, the European Commission appointed her as EU Climate Pact Ambassador, for a term of 4 years.

She is a member of the Croatian Diplomatic Club, and in 2022 the Croatian Bar Association recognized her specialization in Environmental Law, as the first specialization of its kind in the Republic of Croatia.

In July 2024, she was appointed as Board Member of the Scientific Council of COP29 Presidency – COP29 Azerbaijan.

In December 2024, the Government of the Republic of Croatia appointed her as a Special Adviser/Envoy for the Climate Action of the Republic of Croatia.